Friday, May 4, 2012

Of course all dogs are not dangerous but the Government will abuse the dangerous dogs act to have ALL dogs chipped bringing us one step closer to babies chipped at birth. They cannot control the internet so they want to control us through a chip that can program activists who believe in free speech, whats left of it that is.

Compulsory microchips to curb the menace of dangerous dogs

Dog owners could be forced to have their animals microchipped when they are born or sold, under Government plans to be announced next week.

There is concern about dangerous dogs being used as weapons and status symbolsPhoto: Getty

Ministers will announce measures on Monday that will allow dogs to be traced back to their owners, who will then be held accountable for the animal’s behaviour.

Ministers have been under growing pressure to act because of concern about dangerous dogs being used as weapons and status symbols. The Government has already missed its own deadline on bringing in new rules on dogs.

Groups including the RSPCA have called for compulsory microchipping to create a clear link between dogs and their owners. However, Coalition sources said the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [Defra] will announce a consultation on rules that will ensure all dogs are eventually microchipped.

One option is for all puppies to be chipped shortly after birth. Another is for chipping to be compulsory before a dog can be sold.

Existing unchipped adult dogs will not have to be chipped, but ministers believe the effect of the new rules will be near-universal coverage of British dogs within little more than a decade.

The chips hold an electronic record of their owner’s name and addresses, as well as a unique identity number. Implanting can cost as little as £5. Last year, a survey suggested there are about 8.3 million dogs in Britain. More than half already have microchips. Animal charities say there is a growing problem of people abandoning dogs. Defra estimates there are about 125,000 strays in England and Wales. About 6,000 healthy animals are destroyed each year because they have no permanent home. The Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in London said it took in an average of 14 dogs every day last year. Ministers had promised a statement on dangerous dog laws before Parliament began its Easter recess in March. That deadline was missed, prompting criticism from Labour and animal charities. Claire Horton, the chief executive of the Battersea home, said ministers had to make up lost ground on the issue. “The number of dogs coming into Battersea is a huge concern to us when we are powerless to trace irresponsible owners,” she said. “We will continue to do all we can to help these animals but we really need to know that the Government is playing its part in helping to sort the dog crisis on our streets.” Lord Taylor of Holbeach, an environment minister, told Parliament in February that ministers “see microchipping as part of the measures we can do to address an increasing problem”. Defra last night confirmed that a statement will be made to Parliament about dangerous dogs on Monday, but declined to discuss the details. A spokesman said: “We will very shortly be announcing measures to tackle the problems caused by irresponsible dog owners. This is an issue we take extremely seriously and so have taken the time necessary to get the policy right.”

Close to a year ago I wrote a piece for UFO Digest on the Mark of the Beast. At that time I looked at it possibly being a microchip inserted into the human body so the person could be tracked 24/7/12/365, along with every transactions of theirs being recorded on a computer somewhere in the world. It sounds like a nightmare becoming a reality in waking life. With technology advancing the way it is, I find it a good thing to be aware of what is coming down the road towards us. I've suspected for years that authorities have had technology for decades before it comes part of public life. An example is email and the Inter-Net. I was told 10 years ago that the U.S. military used both starting in 1968 to quickly relay messages in time of war. So what has been in store under the guise of surveillance and keeping track of the Great Unwashed?

What if a person will refuse to take the microchip? I can see the those people being shamed via peer pressure to have it implanted into their body. If they are strong enough to resist that, I think they will be exiled from society into concentration camps, have their civil liberties suspended after being branded dissidents.

Some employees may need to be microchipped to gain access to secure areas in their work place. This microchip could be used as a loyalty mark identifying the home region of every citizen on Earth. After being led to a central location, how many people will accept the microchip willingly out of a sense of duty or obligation to family, country, political party or religious leaders?

I can see the media outlets of all kinds playing a direct role in getting people accepting the microchip. I've wondered how many of the reports of terrorism, viruses and so on are exaggerated so people get uptight and live in constant fear. People are busy enough with meaningless busywork on a daily basis so they don't have time to search for the truth. As a result they will just settle for the "official facts."\

Back in the 05/20/06 issue of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, it was reported that various products were implanted with radio frequency devices or RFD's. This was done to keep track of the products movement after purchase. These RFD's are supposed to be found in clothing items, foodstuffs and various other objects.

It's been said to be able to keep track of customer shopping habits and which items are kept in their homes. Also they are presumed to be capable of telling which areas of the store customers spend most of their time in and which items they put into the cart they use. I heard that rumor has it that RFD's allow companies to "look" inside purses and backpacks to see what is being carried in them. All in the name of Big Marketing. It's bad enough that marketing departments use it but what happens if law enforcement agencies or security firms uses it to keep track of people?

Once the general public is injected, en masse, with the microchip smaller than the smallest ant, it's no longer funny.

Neither would the extent of the manipulation behind it be amusing.

I was surprised that just after 9/11 the push for the microchip wasn't hurried along considering the shock people were in. I remember as soon as the two towers were hit, two slogans, "Attack On America" and "War On Terrorism" were on the airwaves.

I found it strange, if not suspicious, that these two slogans were implemented right after the disaster. Why so quick?How much of what I write here remains conspiracy theory, urban legend or the real thing remains to be seen.

Implications: Newborns' DNA is being stored by hospitals without proper parental consent

DNA taken from millions of newborn babies is quietly being stored by hospitals without proper parental consent.
The blood samples, taken in heel-prick tests that check for serious conditions, can be accessed by police, coroners and medical researchers, Freedom of Information Act requests reveal.
Despite Government guidelines advising hospitals to destroy the DNA after five years, some facilities have kept them on file for more than 20 years – prompting fears that a covert database is being created.
Campaigners claim the 32-page leaflets - explaining that newborns’ DNA will be stored – handed to new mothers, does not constitute consent for hospitals to carry out further research.
Nor, they say, does it make clear the samples could be accessed by the police to identify people involved in crimes.
And, although the DNA of each child is stored anonymously, The UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre, which oversees the use of samples, say they could be linked to hospital admissions and the child could be identified that way.
The samples can also be accessed by private medical companies and have been used for genetic research and mass screening for diseases such as HIV in babies’ mothers.
Dr Helen Wallace, of GeneWatch, told the Sunday Times: 'We do not want to put mothers off having these tests as they are very important for their babies’ health, but the key issue really is how long these samples are being stored for. Some hospitals are hanging on to them indefinitely.
‘Giving a new mother a leaflet does not amount to informed consent. We would like to see a system brought in across the whole country which would see all samples destroyed after a certain period of time.’
She added: ‘No one who has just given birth is in a state to understand the full implications of how their baby’s genome might be used in future.’
More than 700,000 babies aged five to eight days old are screened every year for a number of serious conditions such as sickle cell and cystic fibrosis.

Database: About 120,000 samples are taken every year at Great Ormond Street hospital in London, a practice it began in 1990

According to FOI requests, four million samples are currently being held at four centres in the country.
One million have been in storage dating from 1984 at Central Manchester University Hospitals Trust. It has about 250,000 in its laboratory which it plans to store indefinitely.
Cambridge University Hospitals Trust stores 400,000 samples at Endex archives in Ipswich and 62,800 in its labs – they are kept for 18 years.
About 120,000 samples are taken every year at Great Ormond Street hospital in London, a practice it began in 1990. It confirmed that it had occasionally handed samples, which it keeps for 20 years, to coroners but not to the police.
In order to obtain access to an individual sample, officers would need to obtain a court order.
Campaigners have urged Andrew Lansley, the new Secretary of State for Health, to launch an inquiry into the practice.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: ‘As someone who gave consent for my own baby to be tested, I’m horrified that anyone would breach my trust, keep my child’s sample for years on end and use it for all sorts of extraneous purposes,’ she said.
‘If they think that thrusting a leaflet in an exhausted new mother’s hand creates informed consent, they can look forward to a flurry of claims under article 8 of the Human Rights Act.
‘Liberty is writing to the new health secretary to ask for an urgent investigation.’
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: ‘Blood spot screening is an important test carried out to identify serious conditions in newborn babies.
'Research on blood spots left over once screening tests have been completed have led to medical advances benefiting children and their families.
‘There are strict safeguards in place that protect the sample once it is taken. Parents are well informed about newborn screening and the sample storage. They receive a number of information packs during pregnancy and afterbirth.’

Saturday, March 17, 2012

On Sunday March 21, 2010 the Senate Healthcare bill HR3200 was passed and signed into law the following Tuesday. Like I said before, there are a legion of horrible and just plain evil aspects to this bill and I’m sure you’ve heard a lot them by now. I don’t want to discount them but what cannot be missed here is this new law now opens a prophetic door on a magnitude not seen since the reformation of Israel.

This new law requires an RFID chip implanted in all of us. This chip will not only contain your personal information with tracking capability but it will also be linked to your bank account. And get this, Page 1004 of the new law (dictating the timing of this chip), reads, and I quote:

“Not later than 36 months after the date of the enactment”. It is now the law of the land that by March 23rd 2013 we will all be required to have an RFID chip underneath our skin and this chip will be link to our bank accounts as well as have our personal records and tracking capability built into it.

In just a minute I’m going to show you the black and white of the law itself and you can see it with your own eyes and wonder why an event of this magnitude which is nothing less than seismic in nature is met with little more than silence in the Christian community.

Is it now starting to dawn on you just where exactly we are in prophecy?

I’ll ask that question again in a minute and follow up on it, but now I want to show you the law itself. I’ve downloaded a PDF copy of HR3200 from the government’s website so what I’m about to show you is from the bill itself its nothing that I’ve written. You can access it all and see it all for yourself straight from the source itself.

H.R. 3200 section 2521, Pg. 1001, paragraph 1.
The Secretary shall establish a national medical device registry (in this subsection referred to as the ‘registry’) to facilitate analysis of postmarket safety and outcomes data on each device that— ‘‘is or has been used in or on a patient; ‘‘and is— ‘‘a class III device; or ‘‘a class II device that is implantable, life-supporting, or life-sustaining.”

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

First the Coalition ditched its commitment to reforming the DNA database and now the Home Office is handing over access to very sensitive personal information to police forces across Europe.

Despite more than a million innocent people’s DNA remaining on the database, and huge concerns around the operation of extradition law, the Coaltion has indicated it will implement the 2008 Prum Treaty. You might share our surprise at this, given that in opposition then Tory shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve warned: ‘There is a real risk that a disproportionate number of innocent British citizens will be sucked into foreign criminal investigations.’

Prum is described as a ‘fast-track’ scheme to allow European states to ask another state to check a DNA sample against their database and pass on the results.

A fast-track scheme is how the European Arrest Warrant was described, only for it to be grossly abused at the expense of the liberty of British people. This is yet another risk to our rights to a fair trial, in the name of European compliance.

The news comes days after it emerged a teenager has spent three months in jail for an offence he didn’t commit after a DNA database mix up. The Daily Mail has reported how the nineteen year old was found guilty of rape, in a city that he had never visited, after his DNA sample was mixed with that of the attacker’s.

Adam Scott had provided a swab of DNA for an unrelated crime that had been sent to a laboratory run by LGC Forensics, one of three forensic firms in the UK used specifically for DNA crime-scene testing. The firm handles thousands of samples of DNA on behalf of police forces around the country and it is feared that this case could only be the first of many DNA mix-ups that have occurred.

Following up the protestations of having never visited the city that the offence took place they questioned LGC Forensics who insisted that there was a definite match. Mr Scott was subsequently sentenced to three months on remand before beginning a year-long sentence following conviction for his original charge. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has formally dropped the case against the teenager since it came to light that the evidence had been contaminated.

Now imagine the same mix up takes place abroad. Suddenly a British citizen could be extradited under such evidence. Those familiar with the gross injustices resulting from the abuse of the European Arrest Warrant system will be all to wary of this scheme.

As highlighted by Dominic Raab MP, “Britain has not suffered from being out of this pan-European data sharing regime. But, if we opt in, with a million innocent people’s DNA on our police database and a 67 per cent error rate under the EU scheme, more and more UK citizens risk finding themselves mistakenly dragged into criminal investigations abroad.“

A Home Office spokesman insisted: ‘The only DNA records that would be shared under the new system are those relating to individuals with convictions, either in the UK or overseas.’

Well, watch this space.

Big Brother Watch is currently finalising research that will cast new light on the truth behind the Coalition’s claims on the DNA Database.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

AFP - A microchip inserted under the skin has been shown for the first time to successfully deliver a bone-loss drug to a small sample of women, according to US-led research published Thursday.

The device may someday allow patients to avoid daily injections of medication and permit doctors to adjust their doses from afar, said the study which appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The technology "gives physicians a real-time connection to their patient's health, and patients are freed from the daily reminder, or burden, of disease," said co-author Robert Langer, a professor of cancer research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Langer and colleagues were to present their findings later Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, Canada.

The device is about the size of a pacemaker and contains daily doses of medication inside small wells that open up either on a predetermined schedule, or when the chip is given a wireless signal to release the drugs.

"Each of these wells is covered by a nano-thin layer of gold which protects the drug for years if needed and prevents it from being released," said Langer in a statement released ahead of the presentation.

The wireless signal causes the gold to dissolve and allows the drug to enter the bloodstream.

In this case, researchers tested the device on seven women age 65-70 in Denmark who were prescribed the drug teriparatide for osteoporosis. The microchip was implanted just below their waistlines.

After tracking the women for 12 months, researchers found that the treatment improved bone formation and reduced the risk of bone fracture, and delivered the drug just as effectively as daily injections.

However, the same issues that raised concerns in animal studies were also observed in the women: the formation of fibrous collagen-based tissue around the microchip.

The presence of the tissue has raised concerns among researchers over its potential to interrupt drug delivery, though no such problems were observed in the one-year study, after which the women had the chips removed.

Scientists plan to continue studies on the microchip delivery system in heart disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer and chronic pain. The device is likely about five years away from potential market approval, the authors said.

SUBJECT: EU JHA INFORMAL MINISTERIAL 1. Summary. EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers met informally in Lisbon October 1-2. An embassy officer attended to follow discussion of such topics as the elimination of land and sea travel barriers in December, the establishment of a counternarcotics analysis and operations center, the submission of a package of counterterrorism proposals by Vice President Frattini in November, the submission of a package of border control proposals by Frattini in February, and the establishment of a missing children alert system based on the U.S. Amber Alert. End summary.Justice and Home Affairs Informal Ministerial---------------------------------------------

2. European Union Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Ministers held an informal ministerial in Lisbon October 1-2, chaired by Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration Rui Pereira and Minister for Justice Alberto Costa. Representatives from relevant EU institutions, Vice President of the European Commission Franco Frattini, and the Turkish Minister for Justice Mehmet Ali Sahin also participated. An embassy officer attended the proceedings to hear public statements first-hand and to engage attendees on the margins.

3. As a lead-in to the meetings, on September 30 participating member states formally signed the protocol to establish the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center - Narcotics (MAOC-N). Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom founded the center to share intelligence and coordinate counternarcotics efforts. The U.S., though not formally a member, has liaison officers assigned to the MAOC.

4. Also on the agenda but in advance of the informal ministerial meetings, the Spanish and Portuguese Interior Ministers held a bilateral meeting in which they established a task force to coordinate counterterrorism investigations and prosecutions. Pereira noted that although bilateral cooperation had long existed, the task force was established to be more proactive in regard to investigations and cooperation. During the proceedings, Portugal also signed a bilateral agreement with Malta to resettle refugees in Portugal that are currently resident in Malta.

Home Affairs - Prevention of Terrorism and Border Management

--------------------------------------------- ---------------5. SIS/VIS: Frattini and Pereira both noted that by Christmas, all land and sea barriers in the Schengen area will be removed for nine participating Schengen states, Cyprus having requested an extension. Air travel barriers, he said, would be removed in March. Noting that the Schengen Information System (SIS) has succeeded in its testing phase, Frattini suggested that the formal decision to implement the new rules will be taken in November. Frattini also suggested that the EU must have an entry-exit register complete with biometric identifiers. This would, he opined, help manage overstays as well as be a useful data source for security services. Additionally, he noted that various databases and security systems need to be integrated and expanded to include travelers without visas. Moreover, such a European surveillance system must be accessible to local law enforcement. An aide to Frattini said that this package of proposals would be submitted to the college of Commissioners in February.

6. PNR/ETA: Frattini said he would submit a terrorism package to the Commissioners November 6 that includes a proposal to establish formally an EU-wide Passenger Name Recognition (PNR) system.

He noted that the requirements demanded by U.S. negotiators convinced him that the European security services should have access to the same kind of information.

Pereira and German Minister Schauble suggested that, in addition to the intelligence value, a PNR system would allow the EU to negotiate with the U.S. on an equal footing and would allow for balanced cooperation.

Pereira said he would also support a PNR for intra-European flights.

Schauble said further discussion on that point would be needed.

Frattini and Schauble both noted that electronic travel authorizations (ETA) are useful not just for improving security, but also improving the customer service at airports.

With ever increasing crowds at airports, Schauble noted that it is in a traveler's interest to participate in a voluntary ETA program.

7. Internet: Frattini will also submit a proposal to punish misuse of the internet.

This will not, he stressed, be a limit on the freedom of expression.

Pereira noted that the proposal would be limited to taking down sites that specifically incite terrorism or provide instruction in howLISBON 00002605 002 OF 002to commit terrorist acts.

Indeed, added Frattini, the EU already has a regulation that prohibits transfer of illegal data on the internet, without causing concerns of limitation of freedom of speech.

This proposal, he continued, would only add the specific mention of terrorism. Such an update, he opined, is a good example of why the EU needs regularly to review and update its bodies of law.

Current legislation is directed towards formal terrorist organizations, which does not adequately address current realities. Italy, and a few other states, punish conspiracy without being part of a formal organization; Pereira and Frattini each enthusiastically supported the idea that the EU consider the question.

-------10. e-Justice Portal: Costa issued a statement that ministers agreed that the EU should have an information technology system to facilitate access to member states' judicial systems and registry systems. Member states will compile best practices on IT and regularly review performance.

11. Missing Children Alert: Frattini used the well-known case of Madeleine McCann,a missing British girl, to lay out his intention to develop an EU wide alert system for missing children. Frattini specifically and repeatedly mentioned the Amber Alert system in the U.S. as the model that the EU needed to copy. In addition, the e-Justice Portal, according to Costa, will include a list of missing children and direct users to appropriate Hague Convention resources.

12. Child Protection: Costa also noted that the ministers agreed to expand the role of the European Mediator for international child abductions and to support the strengthening and implementation of laws related to child protection. Hoffman

Thousands of innocent people could be removed from the national DNA database under plans being considered by ministers.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said yesterday that about 70 children under 10 would have their profiles removed from the system immediately, while detailed proposals would be published next year to remove details of some of the 850,000 people without a conviction who are on the database

But she stopped short of pledging to remove the DNA profiles of all people cleared of an offence, insisting the system needed to be "as tough as possible" to ensure that criminals were caught and convicted. Ms Smith also revealed she was considering changing the law to take DNA samples from serious offenders who are in prison but were convicted before the database was created in 1995. The Government is also seeking powers to allow police to take samples from serious offenders who have been released from jail.

Ministers have until March to respond to a European court ruling which said keeping DNA samples of people with no convictions was a breach of their human rights. Among proposals being considered are a time limit on the storage of samples, similar to the system in Scotland, where they are destroyed after five years. Other plans include assessing the seriousness of leged crimes to determine whether a suspect's details should be retained.

The DNA samples of many child offenders could be removed at 18.

Ms Smith made it clear that she did not support removing all DNA records from people who had been cleared of an offence.

She cited the case of Sally Anne Bowman, whose killer was convicted on DNA evidence based on a sample taken following a pub brawl for which he was acquitted.

Lady Catherine Meyer, who founded a charity to tackle child abduction, called for a single Europe-wide telephone number that parents could ring the moment their child went missing.

The system, similar to the Amber Alert in the United States, would flash the child’s details up on television and motorway signs.

All ports and airports across Europe would also be alerted.

Lady Meyer, wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to Washington, said: "I am without a doubt sure that if an Amber Alert was in place when Madeleine McCann went missing she would have been found, without a doubt."

She added that British police were "decades behind" America in terms of acting with speed and efficiency to find missing children.

"Police say child abduction doesn’t happen in Britain, they say 'there are just one or two highlighted cases’, but it does happen here," she said. "It is just not reported properly."

A spokesman for the McCanns said: "Kate and Gerry fully support any effort to increase co-ordination across Europe in the case where a child has gone missing.

"In America they have the Amber Alert system for sending children’s details across the country quickly.

"They welcome anything that can lead to greater co-ordination across Europe that can help to stop other children going missing in the future."

He added: "They know Catherine very well and have had discussion with her about this."The European Commission launched a Europe-wide missing-child hotline number, 116000, in February last year, but so far only Belgium, Denmark, Greece and Portugal have adopted the scheme.

The Commission’s vice-president, Franco Frattini, said he was disappointed with the progress made at a national level.

"Only four member states showed goodwill until now."

Lady Meyer, founder of Parents and Abducted Children Together (Pact), said that since the US Amber Alert system was set up 1996, following the abduction and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman, 393 missing children have been successfully recovered.

Lady Meyer also called for a single body to co-ordinate child abduction across the UK and Europe and for the European Union to take a tougher stance on children abducted abroad by members of their own family.

Lady Meyer’s sons, Alexander and Constantin are now adults.

But in an interiew in 2003 with the Daily Telegraph she said she had seen them for only 25 hours since they were abducted by her former husband Hans-Peter Volkmann nine years earlier.

He defied a court order by keeping them in Germany when they went there on holiday without their mother.

German courts repeatedly denied her access, although she received backing from courts in Britain and France and support from politicians in Europe and the US.

Her legal battle to get access to them cost her £200,000 - she had to sell her flat, lost her job and several times came close to suicide.

She wrote a book about her experience, entitled They Are My Children, Too: A Mother’s Struggle For Her Sons.

Madeleine McCann's father has been nominated for the title of Scot of the Year 2007, alongside Gordon Brown and former Scotland manger Alex McLeish.

Glasgow-born Gerry McCann was one of 12 candidates put forward by the Scotland on Sunday newspaper for an online poll.

The news came as the family issued a desperate plea for information after it emerged that police had still not traced every holidaymaker who was in Praia da Luz on the night of the toddler's disappearance.

British police have never been given a comprehensive list of all the guests in the Portuguese resort and some forces are still searching for a handful of people who could hold the key to finding the missing four-year-old.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Robert Murat, the first suspect in the case, said Portuguese detectives could conclude their inquiry as soon as January 3.

Francisco Pagarete said a public prosecutor would decide early in the New Year whether to charge his client or Kate and Gerry McCann.

Under Portuguese law, at that point the evidence-gathering process will end and the prosecutor will either formally accuse one or more of the three - all "arguidos" or official suspects - or shelve the case, he said.

Mr Pagarete predicted this was most likely to happen on January 3, exactly eight months after Madeleine vanished from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. All three deny any involvement in the girl's disappearance.

The McCanns have urged all tourists who were staying in and around the Ocean Club resort on May 3 to come forward in the hope that new witnesses would be found.

"We would appeal to any UK residents who have still not been spoken to by British police and who were in Praia da Luz on May 3 to please come forward and to contact their local police or the confidential phone line based in Spain," said Clarence Mitchell, the official spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann.

"We know for instance that there are a number of British people who were staying in or around the Ocean Club when Madeleine was abducted and who have not yet been interviewed by British police," he said.

Holiday firm Mark Warner is understood to have forwarded a list of all their guests and staff who were at the Algarve resort during the week of Madeleine's disappearance to Leicestershire police, who are co-ordinating inquiries in Britain on behalf of the Portuguese authorities.

But many tourists in Praia da Luz booked their holidays independently of any travel group and some of their identities are still not known.

The task has been made more difficult by the failure by Portuguese police to question everyone staying at the resort.

Meanwhile one element of the investigation will fall into the hands of Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, this weekend, who has 48 hours to decide whether permission will be granted for the Portuguese police to re-interview the McCanns and their friends.

It has been reported that Portuguese authorities are ready to send the Home Office a "letter of appeal" with a list of questions to put to members of the so-called Tapas Nine - the name given to the McCanns and the seven friends who dined with them on the night of Madeleine's disappearance.

News of Mr McCann's Scot of the Year 2007 nomination was played down by Clarence Mitchell, the family's spokesman.

"Of course he would be flattered and buoyed by the support but this has come about entirely for the wrong reasons," he said.

"The only thing that would make Gerry happy is to be reunited with his daughter," he said.Readers of the Sunday newspaper have been given one week to vote online for the Scot who has "inspired us most through the past year".

"Whether they are recognised stars in their field or people who have been thrust into the limelight by events, we want to hear about them," the paper's website says.

Other suggested candidates include Gordon Brown, Scotland football coach Alex McLeish, who resigned after the team failed to qualify for Euro 2008 and John Smeaton, the baggage handler who helped foil a terrorist attack on Glasgow airport.

Madeleine's father quizzed over decision to leave her on her own

The father of missing Madeleine McCann was yesterday forced to defend his decision to leave his daughter alone on the night she was snatched.

Gerry McCann was grilled by American TV networks about why he and his wife Kate did not hire a babysitter to watch their three children as they dined with friends.

Gerry, 39, is in the States on a fact-finding mission to see how they deal with the issue of child abduction and exploitation - as well as publicise Madeleine's case.

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Gerry McCann has appeared on US daytime TV programme Good Morning America as part of his search for Madeleine

Madeliene was abducted 83 days ago as she slept in her bed at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Yesterday her father conducted a string of TV interviews with ABC, CNN and CBS.

Speaking on ABC's Good Morning America, the heart consultant said: "We were dining 50 yards away and we could see the apartment from where we were. It's like we were sat in our back garden, all be it at the end of our garden.

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Gerry McCann leaves the White House after his visit to publicise Madeleine's disappearance

"The kids were sound asleep and they were being checked regularly. We didn't think we needed a babysitter. "We are good parents and what we did felt perfectly reasonable at the time.

"Hindsight is an incredible thing. Clearly we couldn't have predicted what was to happen."

He was also quizzed about the possibility he and GP Kate, also 39, could be prosecuted for leaving Madeleine and two year old twins Sean and Amelie alone in the apartment that night.

He told CNN: "We have been assured by the authorities that what we did fell well within the boundaries of good parenting.

"Madeleine was targeted by a predator and we shouldn't have to be worrying about people getting into our homes and gardens and playgrounds. That is the real criminal act here."

Gerry visited the White House on Tuesday to meet with senior staff of First Lady Laura Bush.

Madeleine McCann has been missing since May 3

Mrs Bush has taken a personal interest in Madeleine's case but was unable to meet Gerry because of prior commitments.

Gerru has already met US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in Washington to discuss efforts to tackle child abduction.

He also met experts from the National and International Centres for Missing and Exploited Children.

He said: "Obviously my focus just now is on trying to get our daughter back. That's the key thing.

"But I think there is a lot of goodwill out there at the minute, that we might be able to leave something tangible for all children, and I think most people agree that these sorts of crimes should not happen and the perpetrators have to be pursued wherever these crimes are performed."

Mr McCann is on four-day fact-finding visit to the US to find out about America's "more advanced systems" to track down missing children.

"She knows very much that we love her and we won't stop searching for her."

Gerry McCann has taken his search for Madeleine from US daytime TV all the way to the White House.

He is said to be convinced that the high-profile campaign to find his daughter Madeleine could also help other missing children

The 39-year-old heart specialist is in America on his global crusade publicising the four-year-old's disappearance from a holiday apartment in Portugal at the beginning of May.

He has already met US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in Washington to discuss efforts to tackle child abduction.

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He also met ex

Gerry McCann is on fact-finding visit to find out about America's 'more advanced systems' to track down missing children

He also met experts from the National and International Centres for Missing and Exploited Children.

"Obviously my focus just now is on trying to get our daughter back. That's the key thing.

"But I think there is a lot of goodwill out there at the minute, that we might be able to leave something tangible for all children, and I think most people agree that these sorts of crimes should not happen and the perpetrators have to be pursued wherever these crimes are performed."

Mr McCann is on four-day fact-finding visit to the US to find out about America's "more advanced systems" to track down missing children.

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Madeleine's father met US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in Washington to discuss efforts to tackle child abduction

He and his wife, Kate, have mounted a vigorous campaign to find Madeleine since she disappeared from the apartment in the holiday resort of Praia da Luz.

"She knows very much that we love her and we won't stop searching for her."Madeleine McCann has been missing since May 3.

The National and International Centres for Missing and Exploited Children were established in 1984 and 1998 respectively after six-year-old Adam Walsh was murdered after being snatched from a department store in Florida in 1981.

The case led to a major review of child abduction cases in the US and legislation passed last year - the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act - was named in his honour.

The disturbing fact of how the McCanns used Gordon Brown to manipulate the Portuguese investigation is remarkable. The McCanns wanted the police to give the media a description of an abductor that was to all intense and purposes fabricated by a member of their group, Jane Tanner...the ONLY proof that Madeleine was abducted! Gordon Brown was a fool!

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Chancellor acts after parents voice their concern at the lack of disclosure by Portuguese detectives

Gordon Brown has personally intervened in the search for missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann after her parents became frustrated by the lack of progress in the police investigation.

After a series of telephone conversations with Madeleine's father, Gerry McCann in recent days, the Chancellor requested assistance from the Foreign Office and the Home Office. He asked that pressure be brought to bear on the Portuguese authorities to allow more information about the inquiry to be made public.

Gerry and his wife, Kate, have been desperate for a description of a man seen carrying what appears to have been a child on 3 May to be made public, but Portuguese police refused for three weeks because of the country's laws, which forbid the details of an investigation being released.

The Observer understands that Brown gave the McCanns an assurance he would do 'anything he can' to help. The British embassy duly applied pressure on the Portuguese authorities to find more flexibility in their secrecy laws.

British ambassador John Buck visited the Algarve last Thursday. A day later Portuguese police made a U-turn and issued a detailed description of the man, said to be white, 35 to 40, 5ft 10in and of medium build, with hair longer around the neck, wearing a dark jacket, light beige trousers and dark shoes.

Asked whether Brown had influenced the decision, Clarence Mitchell, a Foreign Office spokesman for the McCann family in the Algarve, said: 'Draw your own conclusions.' He said in a statement: 'I can confirm that telephone conversations have taken place between Gerry McCann and Chancellor Gordon Brown. During them, Mr Brown offered both Gerry and Kate his full support in their efforts to find Madeleine, although details of the conversations will remain private.'

Although they have praised the efforts being made to find their daughter, the McCanns were said to be increasingly frustrated in recent days at delays and communication problems. The family have met lawyers in the Algarve and threatened legal action to push for the information to be released because of the exceptional circumstances.

The Observer can confirm that a top law firm in London had been asked late last week to seek legal avenues through which the McCanns could be kept up to date on the latest developments in the investigations.

It also emerged yesterday that The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall had been following the case 'closely and with deep concern'.

The McCanns yesterday emerged from their apartment to say that they had had an 'amicable and very constructive' meeting with police. 'We very much welcome the decision of the police authorities to release details of a man seen by witnesses here in Praia da Luz on Thursday, 3 May, the night of Madeleine's disappearance,' Gerry said in a statement.

'The release of this important information followed an earlier meeting we had with senior police officers. We feel sure that this sighting of a man with what appeared to be a child in his arms is both significant and relevant to Madeleine's abduction.'

It emerged that the couple plan to widen their search across Europe. The McCanns are expected to visit Seville and Madrid before moving on to Berlin and Amsterdam. A source said that the reasoning behind the visits is that, 'after Britons, Spanish, Germans and the Dutch are the most frequent visitors to the Algarve', and the most likely to have seen something suspicious.

The campaign fund is now well over £300,000, according to Mitchell. He stressed that the McCanns 'never asked for a single euro'.

In a new interview yesterday the McCanns spoke about their feelings since the night they left their three children asleep in a holiday complex apartment while they dined with friends in the complex's grounds, returning to find Madeleine had been abducted, and their refusal to give up hope of welcoming her back with 'a very big hug'. Asked if she forgets for even one second that her daughter is missing, Kate said: 'Madeleine is such a huge personality it is obvious when she is not there.'

Gerry, wearing yellow and green ribbons on his wrist to accompany those his wife has tied to her hair for more than three weeks, said: 'My waking thought is that the phone by the bedside has not rung. And that means Madeleine has not been found.'

Kate added: 'I am better in the morning, it seems like a fresh start. Evenings are harder. '

The McCanns are drawing strength from their twins, two-year-old Sean and Amelie. Kate said: 'The twins are so young they just get on with things, but obviously we don't want them to forget about Madeleine. We are hoping to see a child psychologist to explain what has happened to Madeleine to the twins.'

She added: 'They help us to get through this. We are a strong family and they were so close to Madeleine, only 20 months apart.'

Gerry said: 'We could have lost the twins too. There were three children in the room. That's the worst nightmare... This is so rare. It's a million to one. We really have to make sure it doesn't affect the twins growing up and their normal childhood. 'This is not a time for grieving. We believe she is still alive, so grief is not the appropriate emotion. We are absolutely determined to get her back. It's a bit like we are waging a war. It's a backs-to-the-wall thing.'

His eyes welled up with tears when asked the first thing he would do if Madeleine returned home.

'I think we will be having a very big hug. Hope, strength and courage are our motto. There is nothing more I would like than to see Madeleine walk in, so we could use the fund to help find other missing children.'

Chancellor Gordon Brown has had several telephone conversations with the father of missing Madeleine McCann, a family spokesman in Portugal confirmed.

Mr Brown offered both parents Gerry and Kate "his full support" in their efforts to find the four-year-old, who vanished on the night of 3 May.
Police have issued a description of a man seen on the night Madeleine was taken from the Praia da Luz apartment.

In a statement, Mr McCann said the sighting of the man was "significant".

A spokesman for the McCanns said: "I can confirm that telephone conversations have taken place between Gerry McCann and Chancellor Gordon Brown.

"During them, Mr Brown offered both Gerry and Kate his full support in their efforts to find Madeleine, although details of the conversations will remain private.

"The conversations took place against the background of the chancellor's earlier offer to help when he met and spoke to other members of the McCann family in the UK."

Police officers in the Algarve said the man they want to question was "carrying a child or an object that could have been taken as a child". Portuguese police went public with the description after pressure from the McCann family to move the investigation on.

BBC correspondent Steve Kingstone in the Algarve said it was the first time the police had given a detailed description of a man they wanted to speak to.
But it is not known how long detectives had known this information or whether they believed the man abducted Madeleine, he added.
The man is said to be white, 5ft 10in, medium build with short hair, and wearing a dark jacket, beige trousers and dark shoes.

The BBC's correspondent said police were publicly playing down the similarities between the man described and the only official suspect in the case, Robert Murat.

Mr Murat denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.

Madeleine's parents said they were pleased that there "appeared to be a new development".

On Friday the McCanns told the BBC of the guilt they felt at not being with their daughter when she was abducted.

Gordon Brown has offered to help the McCanns find their daughter

They said they were experiencing "every parent's worst nightmare" and loved her "more than anyone could imagine".
Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, was abducted from her bed in the Algarve resort as her parents ate dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant.
The McCanns said criticism of them for leaving her in the bedroom was "hard to deal with", but insisted that thousands of other people would have done the same "in such a safe resort".